Monday, May 21, 2012

Creating Memorable NPCs

This week we take on one of the most critical GM skills, and one of the easiest
to get a handle on. That’s because GMs can bring the same excitement and
creativity involved in making up characters as players to making up NPCs. Being
a GM just allows you the freedom to create concepts and play them out
almost immediately. I love NPCs and I think one of my strengths is coming up
with different and intriguing characters. Sometimes I overdo it and have too many
NPCs, but I find it easier to edit or pare away than to introduce new
characters late in a campaign.

Before the GM advice, I'll offer a piece of player advice
regarding memorable NPCs. If you meet an NPC you find interesting in a game,
interact with them. Go back and talk with them again. Mention their name.
Those are the best signals a GM has that something they’ve done has hooked you. A
good GM will clue in and expand that NPC’s presence or role.

READING LIST

Some time back I put together a series of posts on the topic of NPCs in games.
Consider these supplemental and expanded readings.

As you can see at some point I need to go back and revise those pieces. Today I want to reinforce a couple of key points- simple rules to
keep in mind. I also want to present a new tool you can use in NPC
creation, one that allows you to maximize prep time.

1. Always Have Names

A name is a solid and concrete detail. It shows players that this NPC matters.
The sound and color of a name offers atmosphere: ethnicity (Al-Shaghiir,
Zenokevitch), tone (Rump-Bonnett, Grishnar), title (Vadshana of the Rift, Duke
Forlorn). The easiest way to do this is to hit the various name generator sites
and put together a list of names, especially if you can find some theme to
them. I put together this list for a standard fantasy campaign. On the other
hand, for another campaign all of the players chose compound names for their
characters. So I built most of the example names with compound terms. I’ve
done this for modern games, for wushu games (using the Exalted
name generators), and many other genres. One trick is to find names from
certain cultural groups (Hungarian, Thai, etc) and then switch around
letters or rearrange syllables. You get the sound of the language, but with a
strange newness to it. As I use names, I cross them off or annotate them.

There’s a bit of showmanship involved in telling players an NPC’s name. Never
let them think that you’re making it up on the fly. That’s a signal that the
NPC isn’t important. Refer to your notes, repeat details, describe the person
while you’re making the name up. If you make something up, unobtrusively make a
note of the name. I know some GMS theorists dismiss this as
“illusionism” but it goes a long way to making an NPC concrete for the players.

2. Desires and Dilemmas

NPCs should have motivations. In any conversation between an NPC and a PC, the
NPC should want something out of that interaction (money,
acknowledgement, commitment to a quest, not to be killed, romance, figuring
them out, getting home to their family). Take a moment to figure out what that
position or desire. Use that to shape their responses and make the NPC seem more
lifelike. This approach shouldn’t just block or confuse the players; they don’t
have to necessarily figure out that motivation. But it affects tone and the
shape of conversation. It also reminds everyone (including the GM) that these
NPCs live beyond this exchange.

Interesting characters have a gap between their external motivation and their
internal desires. That creates a conflict. In games with disadvantages
that internal desire might be represented mechanically. It shapes or limits
their behaviors. FATE
represents those through aspects; these can be compelled to prevent or direct
actions. For NPCs who will be sticking around or appearing repeatedly, consider what the gap is between who they present themselves as (or
wish to be seen as) and their deeper desires or motives. Over time those NPCs
may be faced with a choice between those, creating a dilemma for them. This can
reveal character. The reverse is true as well- NPCs can be used to uncover or
illustrate the gap between a PC’s external image and internal values.

3. See What Sticks

Different players have different tastes. Ideas you think are awesome or
interesting will fall flat at the table. The most important thing to remember
as a GM: get over it. You’ll make more. You’ll have other brilliant ideas,
interesting plots, cool new monsters, and intriguing NPCs. If something doesn’t
work, drop it and move on. With NPCs don’t focus on creating one or two deeply.
Create a batch with some details and color, and run them through the grinder. I
don’t stat out NPCs. I can do that later or on the fly if I need to. What more
important is figuring out some hooks.

When NPCs hit the table many will be acknowledged and then
forgotten. Don’t worry about these. Note the names- you might bring them back
with changes in their situation or kill them off later. Pay attention to player
reactions: do they have one? do they interact with the character? do they ask
questions of them? do they clearly hate them? If your players have a
significant reaction then the NPCs made an impression. Consider bringing them back
on stage in another scene. A more important signal should be if the players
remember/mention the NPC’s name or go back to talk to them later. Even if it is purely
a question of an NPC having a useful skill or resource for the players, you’ve established someone with a
significant role. Once you’ve determined that an NPC works or has a hook the
group likes, you can work them in more and deepen them. Focus on what seems to
be a hit at the table.

4. Secondary to Players

This is more a caution. Just as players should love their characters, the GM
should love their NPCs. However they should be careful about that. There’s a
necessary balance. The secret is NPCs exist in relation to the
PCs, but players who behave like that’s the case come off like sociopaths. At the same time NPCs shouldn’t take the spotlight away from the players. If they’re able to do
something expertly, they can put those skills in service for or against the PC
group. If they’re an NPC overcomes an obstacle in the group’s way, it should be at
their behest. Unless you intend them to be enemies or rivals, your NPCs
shouldn’t show up the players. Even rivals will need to fall and be overcome.
Beware Mary Sue characters.

5. Exercise: An NPC Tool

I have a trick for creating NPCs that GMs may find useful. Before campaigns
begin, I like to create a batch of NPCs all at once. This activity takes me one
or two hours, depending on how creative I’m feeling and how many I want to
create. I actually did this yesterday and it took me about an hour to do 22
NPCs. I’ll talk about the mechanics of the system in a moment, but let me try
to sell you on the why of it.

NPCs can serve as the best engines and devices for plots and incidents. When I
start figuring out a campaign, I usually have a general sense of the kinds of
stories I want to tell. I might have an idea about the villains or challenges I
think the group would enjoy facing. Perhaps I’ve already developed an idea for
how we’re going to open. But I’d like to know more about the world, like to
come up with more stories and hooks for the players. To do that I brainstorm NPCs. Each usually suggests a new stories or reveals something about
the world. That process serves as half story-idea generation and half
world-building. And the way I do it is cheap and fast.

A number of years ago I developed a “tarot” deck unique to my fantasy world.
I came up with nine suits of nine cards, plus a wild card. Each had a symbolic
name, meanings for their upright and reversed positions, and a relation to something
from the game world. It was one of those goofy GM exercises where you build
something elaborate which isn’t as great or practical for play at the table. Then I
hit on a use for it while thinking about the NPCs for an upcoming urban session. I decided to draw three cards and come up with a story based on that. I did that repeatedly until I had a
great set of unique characters. Eventually my wife created an Excel spreadsheet
with the cards and meanings, each with a number. I could then easily generate a
list of random numbers, use a lookup function, and generate a
set of three details. I use my fantasy world’s tarot, but anyone could easily
do this by building a sheet with standard tarot meanings or any kind of
symbolic set.

The trick is that you have to come up with something based on the elements
listed. You can take them as thematic or chronological. It acts as a spur to
creative work while limiting options. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Yesterday I was going to be running the first session of my new Scion campaign run in Las
Vegas- MY PLAYERS SHOULD STOP READING NOW- so I generated
some NPCs. I knew the game would take place in Las Vegas, and I knew that the
big bad would be Prometheus. I also figured he would have human agents that he
“inspired.”

You may want to click for a slightly larger view

So here’s the first three. I like the joke of the name I put
there for the first one, it gives me a sense of what he’s going to be like at
the table. He’s a cop, so he’ll be easy to throw into the mix in the game. That
second one, well now I’ve come up with a plot for later. Ascendant Bounty
Hunters (borrowing from Unknown Armies).
Maybe he decides he can gain power by taking down a celebrity bounty hunter,
like Dog. Maybe the players get wind of that and have to protect an obnoxious
celebrity. The third character’s interesting, more open. He doesn’t immediately
spring to mind with stories, but I’m sure I’ll be able to figure something out
down the line.

Same here.

So the PCs will obviously be making a lot of noise in the
city. The first character could be used as an ally or agent of an enemy. She
could appear after they’ve caused collateral damage. The second one’s great- I
can imagine a mystical hoarders junkyard estate. That could be a great scene
with someone who perhaps seems crazy but knows too much. The last one’s a nice
contrast to Aaron Brokovitch above- another cop who they might cross paths with
but who could be bad news.

Here’s the thing, it doesn’t take me long to create these NPCs and already I’ve
got new story ideas. I now have a great fallback resource for the campaign. I
can pull them out when I need a new idea or I can throw them into the mix right
away. I don’t have to tightly plot the game, instead I have elements I can drop
into the sandbox. If I don’t use one, no big deal, the effort doesn’t feel wasted.